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I had no issues soldering the Decware Styx I used, but it was quite good raw connected to posts.
I agree with Archie that soft annealed is important for relatively pure 999 silver.
I was trying NOS WE, 16 gauge stranded tinned copper for speaker cables (the wire Duelund modeled theirs after) and I was a little surprised at their popularity after trying the WE in my system. Compelling mids for sure here, but the 16 gauge wires were way lean for me, also missing some of the finest detail. Doubling and tripling them progressively improved bass in the balance, but also consolidated the mids, making them overstated and hard. So liking qualities of a single WE wire, I started playing with combinations of wires that would keep a lot of that mid beauty, while bringing out more complete complexity, smoothness, and lows. One of these was solid core soft annealed 999 silver in oversized teflon, and another was 999 soft copper in over-sized teflon. After a number of iterations, they sounded amazing. I also use solid soft silver or soft copper with oversized teflon for replacing some wires in my amps, or for cap lead replacement.
UP-OCC silver is more expensive, but my all around fav, having tried VHAudio, Neotech, and some raw/soft UP-OCC silver I put in oversized teflon. Though each are their own thing, they have a nice common theme, and there is no doubt to me the UP-OCC is more refined and complete. I suspect the Ohno Continuous Casting is as influential as the Ultra Pure silver, but whatever, this is a pretty state of the art wire to me, resolving, smooth, and clear while tending a bit warm.
But needing a fair bit for 10 foot cables, I tried less costly soft 999, and the wire I got has similar sound qualities, less refined, but still nicely resolving and smooth. These hybrid cables beat my main reference at the time overall and in most ways, a cable that also inspired me to mix wires in the same cable, some Synergistic Research Copper Elements I found used. Those were the last ready made cables I used. Tired of chasing something at more and more expense, I made my own knowing I could adjust them.
After a number of experiments with wire sizes, proportions, and blends, seeking the best balances I could get with the different sonic flavors of the three wire types, I was going for the right overall spectral balance, resolution, and speed, while finding an optimal conglomerate gauge. Too big in my experience with conventional round wires, tends to more overstated mids, with darker, thicker, and slower bass. And too small tends lean and bass shy. In my systems this has been the case with all wires and cables I have tried, whether speaker, power, ICs, or hookup wires. Then I found the right balance of twists, not enough leaving the sound softer/less defined and bass looser, and too many twists, too tight, tending to be too articulate, clear and hard sounding. I know from experience that things can always be better (at least so far), but these speaker cables are so complete and balanced I stopped thinking about them, and have not made the second iteration using UP-OCC silver in oversized teflon even though I have had the parts a long time.
Anyway, if round silver is something you want to explore, I can say I have not heard two wires sound the same, but I am guessing some of the anti-silver bias out there might come from harder silver that has more impurities in the metal and flaws in the structure, or from sort of standard stranded versions of silver-plated copper wires, also I suspect using harder silver. Some of these can be interesting, but in the end the ones I have heard tend to be too bold and hard sounding so I stopped trying to use them for signal wires. Steve’s silver plated speaker wire, I suspect partly from being really big, so bringing up bass in the balance, and using so many strands tightly packed, has a more balanced and smoother sound to me. But in my systems the gauge of this large, single, round cable was finally too big for me. Also some of the more recent Chinese made OCC copper plated with 6-9s silver can be pretty nice I think. But so far, when I want silver, I prefer soft 999 in my speaker cables, and UP-OCC silver in my ICs, also liking it in many amp signal and power circuits where you use less of it.
Not that I have heard it all by any means, but these are the results here after lots of tests.
I bought the 999 soft annealed wire by searching those words on Ebay, and after finding the gauges I wanted and checking prices, I ended up buying from jewelry suppliers.
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